#12.01

like in many ways baby is an answer to the vacuum left by the dead momwife. as opposed to a wife or girlfriend (inconvenient, sexually limiting), baby is an easy way to affirm classical American masculinity - she's a sleek sexy status symbol that can be ogled and protected without detracting from the hero's lonesome cowboy chic. In the absence of the mother figure, baby provides shelter and a sense of Home (without shackling our heroes to a static location.) and ofc the memory of Mary (not her literal flesh but the symbol of her) is the blueprint for the lost ideal of momwife that Baby is replacing. they exist on opposite sides of the same spectrum. they both belonged to John, they are both an inheritance, they are both voiceless, and Dean is wildly in love with both of them. the car and the memory.